WHAT’S Space Battleship Yamato
BOOM WATCH
Space Battleship Yamato, which opened in theaters on August 6, is currently enjoying great popularity. It is even rumored that it will overtake Jaws in terms of audience numbers. The animation was made in Japan and takes place 200 years in the future. The film’s popularity is supported by students from elementary school to university. What is it about Yamato that makes them so enthusiastic?
Space Battleship Yamato was a TV anime broadcast on Yomiuri for six months from October 1974. It was shown opposite Girl of the Alps Heidi, so it did not gain much popularity, but from that time, fan clubs were born all over the country. Currently, the number of members is said to total 20,000. Two years later, on August 6 of this year, Yamato was revived as Japan’s first full-scale science-fiction animation.
Advance tickets sold in Tokyo alone numbered 150,000, easily surpassing the record set by Jaws. The LP record sold more than 250,000 copies within a week of its release. Comics and paperbacks have sold a total of 1.4 million copies and are currently in the process of being reprinted. Furthermore, a version of the film titled Space Cruiser Yamato will be released in America and Europe.
As soon as the completely unknown TV program was made into a movie, it became extraordinarily popular. What is the reason for this? Let us analyze its appeal in detail.
Making Yamato with the participation of fans
This spectacular space drama is not based on a previous story. The original idea was conceived by the producer, Yoshinobu Nishizaki (43 years old), and was quite simple.
“At first, I thought, what if I could fly a ship into the sky? It wouldn’t be interesting if it were a fishing boat or a cargo ship. A battleship would be good. If it were a battleship, it would be the Yamato. That’s why the title Space Battleship Yamato was created first.” (Mr. Nishizaki)
The battleship Yamato of the former Japanese Imperial Navy was remodeled to save the Earth and reappeared in outer space. The original idea was fleshed out by the collaboration of the scriptwriters, director, manga artist, and many other staff members.
Although it did not reach the explosive popularity of Heidi, Space Battleship Yamato firmly took root in the hearts of elementary, junior high, high school, and college students. This is why fan clubs were already active when the film was planned. Visitors came from as far away as Kyushu to visit the studio, to take copies, to help with the work, and finally some of them even became professional animators afterward.
But that does not mean that the production of this anime was easy enough to allow the participation of novice animators. The 52,000 images used, the 120-odd colors of paint, and the 890 people involved in the production was 30 to 50 percent more than that of other anime works.
The most difficult part was the color. The metallic Yamato floats in dark space. Test after test was carried out to make the most of the subtle differences in color tones. There is an inside story that the color department broke down in tears. During the two-year production period, some staff members were hospitalized with stomach ulcers and others became neurotic as new ideas and various improvements were made.
Some adults turn away, saying, “What’s with this cartoon?” but it’s completely different from animation for children.
The story is full of thrills
Let us introduce the story briefly.
The year is 2199. The once blue Earth is now in danger of extinction. Due to bombing from the planet Gamilas, which was planning to invade Earth, radioactive contamination had reached its peak.
Then, a message arrives from the planet Iscandar, 148,000 light-years away. Iscandar has a radiation removal device (Cosmo Cleaner D). The message says, “Come and get it.” With the last prayer of the people of Earth in their hearts, Yamato and its crew of 114 depart on a round-trip journey of 296,000 light-years.
Captain Juzo Okita, Combat Commander Susumu Kodai, Chief Navigation Officer Daisuke Shima, Chief Doctor Sakezo Sado, and Yuki Mori, the lone female member of the crew, fight against the relentless attacks of the Gamilas legions and set their sights on Iscandar.
There are only 365 days left until the destruction of the earth. Will the space battleship, alone and unsupported, be able to reach its goal safely…?
According to the blueprints received from Iscandar, Yamato is equipped with a Wave-Motion Engine. With this engine, Yamato can reach 99% of the speed of light. However, it is impossible to make a round trip through 148,000 light-years of space in 365 days. The only way to achieve this is to use warp navigation (faster-than-light speed).
During the test, Gamilas attacks without hesitation. The space battleship is in danger! But just in the nick of time, “Warp!” Yamato rides the wave of time and escapes from the clutches of Gamilas. A thrilling storyline.
In the scene where Captain Okita dies on the verge of returning to the earth, sobbing can be heard here and there in the darkened movie theater.
If we were to apply this scene to a conventional commercial film, it would be a traditional melodrama, but because the film is set in outer space, even clichéd human drama is surprisingly fresh.
L to R: Yoshinobu Nishizaki, original planner and producer of the film
Ryo Katagiri (Vice President, Space Battleship Yamato fan club II)
Tomoko Watanabe (Chairman, Space Battleship Yamato Connection)
Supercar is nothing to sneeze at!
Let’s ask the fan club kids to say a few words.
Ryo Katagiri (first-year design school student), vice president of the Space Battleship Yamato Fan Club (170 members):
“I feel reality in the precision of the mecha. I love the powerful battle scenes!”
Tomoko Watanabe (sophomore at Tokyo Metropolitan High School), president of Space Battleship Yamato Connection (290 members) :
“The combination of humans and mechanisms is interesting. Of course, I’ve loved mecha since I was a child!”
They unanimously emphasized the excellence of mecha. Flipping through the first issue of Yamato, the journal of Yamato Association (220 members), I found a number of interesting articles filled with illustrations of all kinds of weapons and arms related to Yamato!
And then I found these words from “HM” (a first-year student at the National Defense Academy):
“Tachyon particles, pulse laser gun, Magellanic Stream, and so on. You will never hear these words in other programs.”
Manga artist Leiji Matsumoto, who was in charge of design for both the TV show and the movie, said, “I wanted to make Yamato‘s mecha more complicated, but that would have caused problems for the people who drew the pictures on site. So I had to hold back.”
Even so, the famous triple main gun of the battleship Yamato became a cannon that fires energy rays. The catapult was also left intact and became the launcher for the Cosmo Zero fighter plane. This is the part that fans can’t get enough of. The charm of Space Battleship Yamato is the fun of mecha. That’s all there is to it. “Supercars are just for kids” and female fans are enraptured.
Critiquing out of love
Yamato is not without its critics. Critic Kosei Ono, after citing the merits of mecha, composition, color, etc., says, “I can’t help but think that there is a kind of sentimental nostalgia on the part of the creators. I don’t like the scene of the crew drinking water before going into battle.”
[Translator’s note: despite saying this, Kosei Ono wrote a heartfelt appreciation of the film for the program book. Find it here.]The representatives of the fan clubs, however, were unanimous, saying, “I never thought of the connection with militarism!”
On the other hand, it is not accurate to say there is no criticism on the part of the fan clubs.
“I would like to see more depictions of human beings in the closed society of a space battleship.”
“There are a lot of scientific mistakes in the film. For example, explosions in space dropping downward. That’s not possible.”
“Yamato was supposed to be damaged in the battle, but appears in the next scene unharmed. This is unnatural!”
Regardless of wartime nostalgia, the film has a lot of orders to fulfill.
“It’s good that there are so many complaints. I think our hopes will be reflected in the next work, and it means Yamato has the potential to grow even better.” (K-Kun)
In other words, it is a critique out of love for Yamato. And they are quite eager to see their dreams and aspirations on the screen. Anyway, it is true that this TV anime, which was once unknown, is now attracting attention. Many young people of the TV generation are behind it. Space Battleship Yamato is about to take flight in search of new possibilities.